The Twilight Zone
by Hawki
Summary: STC Oneshot: Mobius was divided into many zones. Some of them were stranger than others. Like, REALLY strange...


**The Twilight Zone**

"Seriously Sonic, don't you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"That sound! Every time we beat Robotnik, there's that jingle," Tails exclaimed. "Like, duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh-duh, da, da, da, da!"

Sonic gave the fox a stare.

"Or maybe it's just me," Tails added sheepishly.

"Yep. Probably." Sonic looked at the fading form of Robotnik, retreating from the battle in his Flying Egg and leaving a trail of smoke as he did so. "Poor guy. You'd think after being beaten a hundred times, he'd have given up by now."

"Ninety-seven."

Sonic looked at Tails. "Pardon?"

"Ninety-seven," the fox said. "Counting all the times you beat him by your lonesome, in addition to all the times I beat him with you, it comes out as ninety-seven."

Sonic stared at him.

"Or ninety-eight, I suppose, if you include that time in Wood Zone."

Sonic shuddered – they didn't talk about what happened in Wood Zone. No-one could ever know what happened in Wood Zone. What happened in Wood Zone stayed in Wood Zone.

"Anyway," Tails said. "Maybe I'm the only one who hears the music. But after that spinny billboard fell down from the sky and nearly killed you yesterday, I'm starting to wonder-"

"Oh look, a zone portal," Sonic murmured.

Right on cue, a zone portal appeared in the air before them. The things littered all the zones of Mobius, allowing quick transport across the planet. Not that Sonic needed them of course, what with being the fastest thing alive, but poor Tails could never keep up with him. His usage of the portals was for his friend's sake, not his.

"Huh." Tails hovered in the air and peered through the portal. "Looks dark there."

"So? Probably Starlight Zone."

"But Starlight Zone should still have daylight," Tails said. He put a hand to his chin. "Huh. Why's it called Starlight Zone when it's still day there half the time? It's kind of like Spring Yard Zone – there's a lot of springs, but not that many yards. Of course, yards are an outdated system of measurement in most zones, since everyone uses metres and-"

Sonic grabbed the fox and jumped through the portal. "Less chat, more whack."

* * *

As soon as they jumped through the portal, Sonic could sense that something was wrong. And it wasn't because he'd used a term like "less chat, more whack." Chaos's sake, the two words didn't even rhyme properly.

"Um, Sonic?" Tails asked.

But poor rhymes, he could deal with. This empty dark space that he and Tails were drifting through? Not so much. He tried moving his feet, but he had no ground to run across. Heck, he didn't even have a sense of orientation. He looked at Tails, and to his jealousy, he saw that he could alter his orientation with his twin-tails, if not his trajectory.

"Sonic?" Tails moaned. "I don't feel too good."

"You won't, if you throw up on me," Sonic snapped. He looked around the place – darkness. No stars, no lights, nothing. Not even the portal that the two of them had come through.

_So where are we?_

Sonic had been to dozens of zones. Some more than others, Green Hill and Emerald Hill being the most common. But not even the Special Zone could compare to this insanity, and that had everything from half-pipes to flying fish to giant gumball machines. This, on the other hand? This was just a zone of nothing. And one that likely wasn't even on Mobius. But if that wasn't the case, then-

_You unlock this door with the key of imagination._

"Whoa!" Tails exclaimed. "Who said that?"

_Beyond it is another dimension. _

"No idea pixel brain, I'll get on that," Sonic murmured.

_A dimension of sound._

"Obviously a big-head. And a…oh."

"Oh? What's an oh?" Tails asked.

Sonic glared at him and gestured at to what they were spinning towards.

_A dimension of sight. A dimension of mind. You're moving into a land of both shadow and substance. Of things and ideas._

A door. Rotating in the dark, but remaining in place as they kept spinning towards it.

"That some kind of zone portal?" Tails murmured.

Sonic looked at him. "Seriously?"

"I'm just saying, we're in a zone, and there's a door, and I don't know where the door leads, and I'm really, really not feeling too well right now, and-"

_You just crossed into…the Twilight Zone, _the voice said.

Sonic looked at Tails. Tails looked away as he threw up. Sonic looked away and saw the door open, revealing only more darkness. More nothing.

_So if we're about to enter the Twilight Zone, _Sonic thought to himself, _which zone are we in now?_

They passed through the door. A blinding light engulfed them. Sonic shielded his eyes, and-

* * *

"Sonic?"

_Anyone got the number of the badnik that ran over me?_

"Sonic!"

Sonic opened his eyes, and found a grey-white fox standing over him. He looked like Tails.

"On thank goodness you're awake!"

He sounded like Tails as well. Only he wasn't Tails. Tails had two tails, blue eyes, gloves, sneakers, and orange-yellow fur. This fox had two-tails, grey eyes, gloves, sneakers, and grey-white fur. Which meant that either this was some evil clone of Tails, an alternate reality version of Tails, or worst possibility of all, an evil clone of Tails that hailed from an alternate reality.

Which, if that was the case, could give what happened in Wood Zone a run for its money. Scowling, Sonic got to his feet and looked around the endless shelves of books. "Where am I?" he asked.

"I dunno," said the not-Tails. "I mean, we're in a library, and-"

"Heck, you are Tails," Sonic murmured, recalling his sidekick's tendency to state the obvious. Not even a clone or an evil doppelganger could be that accurate. Maybe a clone of an evil doppelganger could, but giving the fox the benefit of the doubt, Sonic looked around. At the books. The shelves. How everything was white and grey. How-

_Oh heck._

…how his own body was shades of those colours as well. He stared in horror at his arms, his legs, his sneakers. The blue, the peach, the red, the white…all of it, gone. Well, all but the white at least, but white stripes on grey sneakers weren't nearly as cool as white stripes on red sneakers.

"So," Sonic said. "We're in a library. Question is, where is this library?"

"Why hedgehog, in the Twilight Zone."

Sonic got into a fighting pose. Tails jumped into the air and hovered there, ready to fight as well.

"But fear not," the voice said, echoing through the library along with its footsteps, "you're safe. For now."

"We'd feel a lot safer if you showed yourself," Tails said.

"A fair point. And thus, I shall reveal myself."

A shadow was cast along the shelves, and Sonic found himself of a movie Sally Acorn had shown him once. Something about a bat having two shadows, and being torn between them, and no, he was not scared watching it, no matter whatever Tux said. But all the horror in that movie paled to the sight before them now. This most hideous of sights, this most diabolical of monsters, this man walking towards them smoking a pipe. Because what in this universe was more evil than a human?

Granted, the only human Sonic knew was one that had turned evil due to the ROCC malfunctioning, but still…

"Welcome," the man said, puffing at his pipe. "Welcome to the library."

"Um, mister?" Tails asked, as the human kept walking towards them. "I know it's really none of my business, but you do know that smoking is bad for you, right?"

The man cleared his throat. "Looks cool. It helps with the monologues. And…" He began to cough, and only ended the session ten seconds later. "Now then. Where was I?"

"Something about a library," Sonic murmured. "Oh, and that you were going to send us home, and throw in a chilli cheeseburger for good measure."

"In due time my good hedgehog, in good time," the man said. He turned away from the two mobians and ran a finger along the spin of a book. "But indeed, what does time matter in this place? This place between worlds, this repository of infinity, this library where all stories, all possibilities, can be entertained, as we explore the-"

"Yeah, about time," Sonic said, tapping his foot. "I don't have much of it."

The man glared at him. "You really have no sense of occasion do you?"

"Oh I've plenty. I fight Robotnik, I beat Robotnik, everyone celebrates, I have a cheeseburger and fries, the end."

Tails grunted.

"Oh, and my pal helps too. Sometimes."

The man nodded. "Perhaps. But for all your battles with Doctor Robotnik, I assure you two, you have never encountered a challenge like this. For as you enter the Twilight Zone, as your true natures are revealed, you will be forced to ask and answer questions that will shatter your perceptions of the universe and…" He trailed off, as Sonic yawned. "Oh for Pete's sake!"

"This gonna take long?" Tails asked.

The man cleared his throat. "Oh Tails, saviour of the Nameless Zone. Know that your secret deeds will be laid bare, and-"

"Secret deeds?" Sonic interrupted. "Please. Tails doesn't leave my sight since he's following me around all the time like a stray cat."

"Hey!" the fox exclaimed.

"Sorry Tails, stray dog."

"Ahem!" the man said. He looked at Sonic. "Oh, hero of Mobius – the nemesis to the doctor, whose birth was entwined with yours. For the cable was raised, and paradox restored, and-"

"Can we go now?" Sonic asked.

The man took another puff of his pipe.

"Well?" Sonic asked.

The man blew out grey smoke from grey lips, and looked at them with grey eyes, situated above a grey suit.

"Mister?" Tails asked.

"Quiet fox boy, I'm getting back to my monologue."

"Oh. Okay. It's just, everything's grey and white here, and I've been hearing strange music every time we beat Robotnik, and I'm starting to wonder if-"

"Music!" the man yelled. "Oh, the universal language, as one plies the-"

Sonic let out a yell, jumped, and grabbed the man by his neck. The human yelled as he toppled over, but before he could let out further protest, Sonic put his glove over his mouth.

"Stop talking," Sonic said. "Please, just please…stop…_talking_."

"Mmm-hmmm-hmm!"

"You're even worse than that possum who kept saying he was awesome all the time."

"You mean Awesome Possum?" Tails asked.

Sonic glared at him. "I thought we agreed to never say his name again."

"Oh, okay," Tails said. "Sorry. I thought it was the bandicoot we never agreed to speak of again."

"No, the bandicoot's fine."

"What about the bat? And that squirrel who threw nuts? And that green dinosaur plumber who wore a red cap while savagely attacking turtle creatures and-"

"All cool Tails, all cool. Just don't mention the possum. Or the bobcat."

Tails gave him a salute, and Sonic gave him a nod, before returning his gaze to the man. "Right," he said. "Much as I'd love to deal with wannabe heroes that won't even be remembered a generation from now, I've got bigger fish to fry. And by that, I mean I want you to return me and Tails to Emerald Hill so we can fry some actual fish."

The man stared at him.

"Fish and chips."

The man stared at him.

"Yes, I eat more than chilli cheeseburgers, thanks for asking." Sonic let go of the man's mouth and let him get to his feet. "Home. Now."

The man sighed. "Very well," he whispered. "I could have shown you so many things. Dreams beyond the speed of sound. Nightmares beyond that of the Wood Zone…"

Sonic glared at him.

"…but very well. I shall return you to your world, having learnt…" He shrugged. "Usually there's a moral behind one of these encounters."

"That we're too young to appreciate the subtleties of the Twilight Zone, and that we're better enjoyed by kids or adults that refuse to grow up?" Tails asked.

Sonic stared at him. "That was oddly specific."

Tails shrugged. "Sorry. Just ever since the spinny sign fell down, I've been having weird dreams about…" He trailed off.

"Tails?" Sonic asked. "What dreams?"

Tails shook his head. "Too weird."

"Ahem."

The two mobians looked at the human and the door that had appeared next to him. It was the same size, shape, and colour as the one that had brought them into this so-called Twilight Zone. And when it opened, much to Sonic's relief, he could see Emerald Hill on the other side.

"You two may go," the man said. "But if you ever decide to return, remember that the Twilight Zone will-"

"See ya," Sonic grunted, before grabbing Tails and jumping through.

* * *

There was no waking up moment on the other side, which suited Sonic just fine. It gave him all the more time to behold his colour – his blues, his reds, his everything. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, power rings were hovering in the air, and-

"We're back!" Tails exclaimed.

…and his sidekick was still stating the obvious. Which, Sonic reflected, was a price he that was worth paying for escaping the nightmare they'd just been in. "Well," he murmured. "That was one of the worst zones we've ever been in."

"Oh I dunno, it was okay," Tails said.

"Okay? In what reality was that _okay_?"

"Well, when you compare it to the places we've been," Tails said, "was it worse than Labyrinth Zone?"

Sonic frowned.

"Or Marble Zone? Metropolis Zone?"

Sonic shrugged. "Maybe…"

"Wood Zone?"

Sonic glared at him.

"Okay. I'll shut up now."

The glare faded. "Good," he said. "Now let's juice."

They didn't speak about Wood Zone. No-one spoke about Wood Zone.

Not even as Mobius's two greatest heroes zoomed across the Emerald Hills, looking for a fish and chips joint.

* * *

_Not all stories have a moral. Not all revelations have an explanation. Not all who pass through this door seek to have their minds expanded. But whether they walk through the depths of a wood, or under the shadows of shelves, none ever forget the Twilight Zone._


End file.
